Autoimmunity BioSolutions Bolsters Leadership Team
ABS is pioneering a personalized, genetically guided immuno-corrective therapy designed to normalize elevated levels of soluble IL7 receptor.
HOUSTON, Nov. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Autoimmunity BioSolutions (ABS), is pioneering a personalized, genetically guided immuno-corrective therapy designed to normalize or "correct" elevated levels of soluble IL7 receptor (sIL7R), a fundamental driver of poor therapeutic response in autoimmune disease.
ABS announced key appointments to its leadership team, including Richard Polisson, MD, MHSc, Chief Medical Officer, and Jen Beachell, MBA, Chief Business Officer. Dr. Polisson was Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Sanofi-Genzyme Research and Development Center. Prior to the Sanofi acquisition of Genzyme in 2011, he was Senior Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head overseeing the Biosurgery, Immune Mediated Disease, and Neurology/Multiple sclerosis development programs. Dr. Polisson is a Rheumatologist and former Associate Professor of Medicine who practiced at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Jen Beachell recently served as the founding Chief Commercial and Chief Operating Officer of Upstream Bio after serving as the Vice President of the global commercial autoimmunity diseases area specialty group leading IMAVVY® at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicines after the acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. ABS has also expanded its operating advisors to include Alidad Mireskandari, PhD, as the Scientific Advisor of Diagnostics and Robert McBurney, PhD, as the Director of Personalized Medicine Strategy.
"I am very grateful that each of these highly experienced and capable individuals has chosen to join the ABS team," said CEO Gene Williams, MBA. "With this team, we are well positioned to build a company providing great benefit to patients, therapy that is personalized and immuno-corrective for patients who are not adequately served by current treatment options."
ABS is addressing a significant unmet need in Autoimmune Disease – poor response to standards of care
ABS's scientific team discovered a highly prevalent SNP estimated to be present in roughly 50% of the overall population, which causes a 2–3-fold increase in circulating sIL7R. Elevated sIL7R has been repeatedly identified in scientific evidence to contribute to greater disease severity, increased disease progression, and reduced response to standard-of-care therapies across multiple autoimmune indications. Current standard-of-care treatments in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus nephritis (LN) and type 1 diabetes (T1D) have demonstrated an approximate 50% non-response rate in clinical trials. For example, in a study conducted in 2011 in RA patients, non-response correlated very strongly with elevated levels of our target sIL7R, a 3-fold variation in response to infliximab. ABS will explore normalization of sIL7R in the genetic risk population to increase response to standard of care therapies.
ABS development strategy – patient bio-sample studies that may significantly increase the odds of success in Proof-of-Concept (POC) clinical trials
ABS plans to conduct patient bio-sample studies first in RA, then in Lupus/LN; and T1D. The company will track new patient starts on standard-of-care treatments, and using our biomarkers, will measure the correlation between genetically upregulated sIL7R and non-response. Where that correlation is strong, the company will pursue a POC study designed to demonstrate a compelling first-in-patient treatment benefit. The design will include a standard-of-care treatment (SOC) as an active control in the genetic risk population, with a known poor response, and compare that to an ABS treatment arm that combines SOC with ABS "immuno-corrective" therapy to reduce sIL7R to the level seen in patients who tolerate and respond well to the SOC therapy. A clinical design that combines ABS treatment with SOC versus SOC alone is a common approach in autoimmune disease clinical trials, and similar to GSK's design in the pivotal trial of Benlysta in Lupus Nephritis that led to its approval, as well as the initial approval of Remicade in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
About Autoimmunity BioSolutions (ABS)
Autoimmunity BioSolutions (ABS) is pioneering a personalized, genetically guided immuno-corrective therapy designed to normalize or "correct" elevated levels of soluble IL7 receptor (sIL7R), a fundamental driver of poor therapeutic response in autoimmune disease. This therapy targets a genetically defined subpopulation of autoimmune disease patients marked by a highly prevalent genetic variant (SNP) associated with greater severity of disease, increased progression of disease, and poor response to current treatments. This immuno-corrective approach of targeting sIL7R in a genetic population is highly differentiated from current standards of care that rely on immunosuppressive mechanisms and has broad potential to treat numerous autoimmune diseases.
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SOURCE Autoimmunity BioSolutions
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